Tag: 1978

Categories
1970s Blogging Movies Music Radio

My Top 5 Hits RETRO – 1978

Hello again retro music fans. Every Friday I post the Top 5 of one of my classic hit music charts based on personal preference and influenced by radio airplay from either 15, 20, 25, or 35 years ago this weekend (rotating each week).

It’s the 5TH Friday of the month, so it’s a special, as I go back 45 years ago. Here it is – for the week ending Sunday April 02ND 1978:

  1. “Night Fever” – Bee Gees
  2. “Stayin’ Alive” – Bee Gees
  3. “Lay Down Sally” – Eric Clapton
  4. “Can’t Smile Without You” – Barry Manilow
  5. “Emotion” – Samantha Sang

America was dancin’ the night away 45 years ago when I was not quite 11 years old as a 5TH grader in Lanham Maryland. My chart wasn’t born yet, but my hobby of following the Billboard Hot 100 at the New Carrollton Public Library and then counting down the Top 40 with Casey Kasem every Sunday was in full swing. (The Top 5 above is from that Hot 100.)

“Saturday Night Fever” was a runaway smash at the box office, and its Soundtrack album was MASSIVE – the biggest in history at the time. Samantha Sang’s “Emotion” is often mistaken as a “Saturday Night Fever” track, but it was not in the movie. It’s also mistaken as featuring Bee Gees in the background, but it’s just Barry Gibb. He wrote the song with his brother Robin.

Next #RetroFriday I’ll go back 15 years ago to the start of April 2008. It’s when #FF5 were #FD.

It’s halftime my friends. I’ll be back on Sunday and Monday with 2 more blog posts for this weekend. Enjoy your Saturday. Thanks for going retro with me !

All rights reserved (c) 2023 Christopher M. Day, CountUp

Categories
Life Music Television

40 Years Ago Tonight

It’s the 18TH of October of 2018, and 40 years ago in 1978 this day was a Wednesday. One of my favorite TV shows of all-time – “The Jeffersons” – kicked-off the CBS prime-time line-up at 8 PM with the episode “George’s Dream”. (His dream was a nightmare about 18 years into the future – a future that didn’t involve him.)

On the radio Exile’s “Kiss You All Over” and Nick Gilder’s “Hot Child In The City” were two of the hottest pop smashes from coast to coast, and both of those songs are currently active on my workplace iPod Shuffles. I hear those two songs almost every day !  I still sing along to them.

40 years ago I was 11 years old and in the 6TH grade at Magnolia Elementary School in Lanham Maryland – located just a few minutes away from my house by foot right in my own neighborhood. I attended Kindergarten there (1972-1973) as well as 3RD through 6TH grades (1975-1979).

Here’s a photo of my Elementary School as it looked 3 summers ago when I visited the area:

Magnolia Elementary School

I was a Boy Scout in 1978, so if I had a Boy Scout meeting on that Wednesday night then I probably didn’t see that episode of “The Jeffersons”. I know that I’ve seen it in reruns though.

Tomorrow night the RETRO continues, but 20 years later in 1998.

Categories
History Life Music News Radio

The Major’s Friday Night Disco Party

FLASHBACK with me to the Summer of 1978. It’s when Garfield made his debut in the comics section of daily newspapers everywhere. It’s when the world’s first test tube baby was born in England. It’s when Pope Paul VI died at the age of 80, and was succeeded by Pope John Paul I who died just a month later.

I turned 11-years-old on June 05TH 1978, and I successfully completed the 5TH grade at Magnolia Elementary School in Lanham Maryland. After all of these years it’s the 5TH grade that stands out above all of the rest as the most memorable of them all. It was memorable in a positive way – great teachers – great classes – great classmates. I really believe that the latter half of my grade school years (4TH, 5TH, and 6TH grades) were more influential and more valuable in molding my later adult life than the subsequent Junior High and Senior High school years. My writing skills today were conceived and developed during those latter grade school years.

On the radio during the Summer of 1978 Disco ruled, as it crossed-over in a big way from the big city nightclubs to mainstream pop, rock, and soul radio nationwide. The Bee Gees‘ younger brother Andy Gibb was only 20-years-old at the time, but he was one of the hottest solo acts in the world. Here’s his memorable Disco smash that spent most of June and all of July of 1978 at the very top of the national pop chart. It went on to become the # 1 song of the entire year here in the U.S. – as well as one of the biggest songs in American chart music history. Here’s “Shadow Dancing” on the ‘Disco Party’:

Categories
History Life Music Radio

The Major’s Friday Night Disco Party

The 1970s just got another decade further away. Now that the first decade of the 21ST Century is complete we can theoretically state that the 1970s was four decades ago. It’s the decade that I entered as a 2½-year-old toddler, and exited as a 12½-year-old 7TH grader in Junior High School. For me it was the ‘TOP 40 Music’ decade, as it was the running soundtrack of my active childhood years. Whatever was hot on AM and FM pop radio was playing everywhere I went. Whenever I hear the music again from those times I frequently remember what I was doing at the time – good or bad – all of these years and decades later. It’s the music of my life.

This weekend on my ‘Disco Party’ I present to you a local homegrown Cuban / Miami disco act known as Foxy. Their single “Get Off” was their biggest hit – and a 1978 Disco Smash !